THE TUR­TLE SUR­FACES AT 56lb 12oz

Welling­ton gi­ant is ded­i­cated to cap­tor’s late friend

SPUD Sims has banked Welling­ton Coun­try Park’s most cov­eted res­i­dent – and ded­i­cated the cap­ture to a de­parted friend.

The 56lb 12oz mir­ror, the Tur­tle, slipped up on a Mon­day af­ter­noon at the Berk­shire big-fish wa­ter.

“Back in May, I lost my great friend Steven Ma­son to can­cer, so catch­ing the Tur­tle is for him,” said Spud.

Hav­ing ar­rived at the venue on Sun­day, the 44-year-old found the lake busy and lack­ing any signs of fish ac­tiv­ity.

After a quiet night in the Wides, a tip-off from a mate saw Spud pack up and head to the Arm.

The Soli­hull an­gler said: “At 5.45pm, I had a few bleeps and saw the line pick­ing up. I was on it im­me­di­ately and the fish was mov­ing fast and kit­ing right to­wards dan­ger and a snaggy tree in the near mar­gin.

“I had to gain line fast, but soon the fish had reached the edge of the tree. With the tip buried and max­i­mum pres­sure ap­plied, I gained line and soon had it in front of me. Over the next few min­utes it went on pow­er­ful runs but even­tu­ally, at the sec­ond at­tempt, I net­ted it.”

Venue bailiff Jamie Lord was sum­moned and iden­ti­fied the fish.

“I was blown away,” said Spud. “We weighed him at 56lb 12oz, did the pic­tures and he pow­ered off back into his pond. It was the ses­sion of a life­time.”